New Machine - Please comment!

[Sephora]

Hi,

Going to be purchasing a new system soon and would greatly appreciate
any input any of you might have.
I'm not looking at overclocking or anything, just want the best bang for my buck
and a machine that will last awhile.

Generic 300W Case
Athlon XP 1700+
Thermaltake Volcano 7 (Alpha 8045 costs 3X more)
Cruicial 256MB PC2100 DDR
ECS K7S5A
LG 16x10x40 Burner
Maxtor 40GB 7,200 RPM
ATI Radeon 7500 64MB DDR
SbLive Value

Total: $1,109 CAD with tax.

A couple questions:

1. Should I bother with Crucial RAM which costs more, or go with the generic RAM?
It's a difference of $40!

2. Are LG burners decent? Not doing anything too extensive.

3. Should I even bother with Volcano? Heard that cooling the chip is a big issue
for the life expectancy.

Again, any and all comments are deeply appreciated. Thanks!

 

[osage]

I'd stay with the Crucial ram, the K7S5A is know to not play nice with a lot of generic ram. Also make sure that the PSU is on the AMD approved list for that 1700XP, this an other area that the K7S5A is picky about.

 

[Sephora]

bump!

 

[gdawson6]

I would upgrade to a shuttle ak31a which isnt much more than the ecs and is a lot better. You will be glad you did. Its still a great mobo for a great price.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

I'd stay with Crucial, drop the K7S5A and pick up a Soltek, Epox, or similarly low priced 266A mobo. The K7S5A seems to be a decent mobo if it's working but ECS definately has some quality control problems. That and if you ever wanna o/c, you're gonna be better off with 266A. Or now that I think of it, the IWIll XP333 is nice too.

And the Generic 300W case is probably a bad idea. A case is one of the longest lasting parts of a PC, and the power supply is something that Athlons are mighty picky with. You don't wanna find yourself in the situation where you're kicking yourself a year and a half down the line cause the case ya have is rattling every time ya access your CD-ROMs and the flimsy plastic and metal are starting to show signs of wear and tear. If you're on a budget, I'd at least suggest an Enlight 7237, and for a little more money (and quality, IMO), go for an Antec SX635. It's a smallish case, but stardy as heck, looks alright, and comes with a 350w Antec power supply. Antecs are some of the best in the business...

The SBLive is up to you, but if you grab a Via board ya might wanna pick up a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or an Audigy.

 

[Riker1]

Check this place out for a great comparision.


AMD Athlon 2000 mid tower
KT 133A Socket A 266 FSB Mainboard
?Mid Tower 300W ATX Case
?40GB Ultra IDE Hard Drive
?GeForce2 MX200 32MB AGP
?Sound Blaster PCI 128 Sound
?52X Cd-rom
?1.44 Floppy Drive
?256MB PC133 SDRam
?56K V.90 PCI Modem
?Keyboard and Netmouse
?120 Watt Speakers

$805 + shipping ,with upgrade options

Check it out and judge for yourself.